New Scaratings

Adams Mill is in, sorry haven't been on scaratings in awhile and my email account is acting screwy

This is one last gentle reminder that registration for the tournament end this weekend. If you have not yet signed up your team for the tournament, now would be a good time.

Either way, though, Live Long and Prosper.

_________________
Anon
"He may seem like Mr. Rogers but a dark spirit lies beneath."

Thanks for the reminder Adams Mill is in

Barring an oversight on my part, here is the field for the 2018 McCarthy Cup. The tournament starts tonight, so if your team is missing and you think it should be on in here, please let me know ASAP:

Adam’s Mill, Manchester CT
Big Guys, Winnipeg MB
Bilmar Station, Tampa FL
Broadway Bar and Grill, Nepean ON
BWW-Blacksburg, VA
BWW-Crystal City, Arlington VA (but may move to another location if technical issues continue)
BWW-Oklahoma City OK
BWW-Tallahassee FL
Cedar Cottage, Vancouver BC
Danny K's, Orange CA
The Fellowship, BWW-Kent OH
Houlihan's-Westbury NY
Humperdinck's, Dallas TX
K-zoo Krew, BWW-Kalamazoo MI
K.C.'s Time Out Lounge, Evansville IN
Mad River, New York NY
Meriden AOH, Meriden CT
Moose McGuires, Ottawa ON
The Old Barn, Portland OR
The Ragged Rascals, Albuquerque NM. (Will start at BWW-Gibson)
Stadium Cafe, Addison TX
Stained Glass Pub, Elkridge MD
Tailgate Sports Cafe, Minneapolis MN
Teaser's, Chicago IL
Tilted Kilt, Scottsdale AZ (although will be starting the tournament at BWW-Scottsdale)
Time Out West, Hanover Park IL
Wallaby's, Lenexa KS
West Park Station, Cleveland OH

_________________
Anon
"He may seem like Mr. Rogers but a dark spirit lies beneath."

Week 1: That was a rousing start, wouldn't you say, ANON? The Tailgate was like a zombies' convention where everyone was missing a limb. And apparently we weren't partying alone.

Congratulations to Crystal City for your superb start.

We want to harvest your brains.

In the Star Trek episode "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield," Captain Kirk first famously starts the Enterprise's self-destruct sequence as a tactic to regain control of the ship. The Fellowship tried this tactic last night with one small tweak: Instead of seizing control of the tournament, they blew themselves up instead. I, for one, think it was extremely sporting of them to do so.

As evidence of just how wide-open this tournament is, three former McCarthy Cup champions are currently on the outside looking up at the top 16 teams. At the same time, the most-decorated McCarthy Cup champion--The Team Formerly Known As Grand Slam--seized first place in both the tournament and the network with a commanding performance reminiscent of the days of Showdown yore.

Before posting this week's standings, a few explanatory notes are in order:

1) The folks from Scooter's petitioned yesterday to be included in the tournament, and The Fellowship voted before the game to include them. Congrats to them for almost doubling The Fellowship's score.

2) The Ragged Rascals played at BWW-Gibson last night.

3) The Tilted Kilt team played at BWW-Scottsdale last night.

Without more ado, here are the Week 1 Standings:

59,257 BWW-Crystal City, Arlington VA
41,160 West Park Station, Cleveland OH
38,396 The Ragged Rascals, Albuquerque NM
37,815 Tilted Kilt, Scottsdale AZ
35,465 Scooter's, Las Vegas NV
34,481 Tailgate Sports Cafe, Minneapolis MN
34,123 Broadway Bar and Grill, Nepean ON
33,105 K-zoo Krew, BWW-Kalamazoo MI
32,312 Moose McGuires, Ottawa ON
32,125 Teaser's, Chicago IL
31,565 Houlihan's-Westbury NY
31,158 Mad River, New York NY
30,242 Big Guys, Winnipeg MB
28,313 BWW-Tallahassee FL
27,908 Stained Glass Pub, Elkridge MD
26,136 The Old Barn, Portland OR
24,912 Time Out West, Hanover Park IL
20,006 Cedar Cottage, Vancouver BC
19,465 Humperdinck's, Dallas TX
18,894 The Fellowship, BWW-Kent OH
18,582 Stadium Cafe, Addison TX
18,369 Meriden AOH, Meriden CT
17,541 BWW-Blacksburg, VA
15,737 Danny K's, Orange CA
14,658 K.C.'s Time Out Lounge, Evansville IN
14,389 Bilmar Station, Tampa FL
13,966 BWW-Oklahoma City OK
12,855 Adam’s Mill, Manchester CT
10,754 Wallaby's, Lenexa KS

As bad as the game went for a lot of teams, the good news is that no one is out of the running. Everyone gets to drop one low score, and I suspect this will be the one that more than half of us will use.

I know you all have come to expect more analysis than this from me, but I'm afraid that I am overdue to limp over to Sick Bay, where Bones will be treating me for severe burns and other self-destruction-related injuries.

Good skill this week, and live long and prosper.

_________________
Anon
"He may seem like Mr. Rogers but a dark spirit lies beneath."

That game was a blood bath

Due to inclement weather the Adam's Mill is closed so we will not be playing trivia tonight, looks like our Mccarthy cup hopes are done before it really even started

Mother Nature may have screwed you over, but her incursion at this time of year is only temporary. Your site, Adam's Mill, has a more enduring presence than a March blizzard. Suck it up, dig yourself out, and run the table when you get the chance.

In the Star Trek episode "Mirror, Mirror," Kirk and his away team find themselves on the Enterprise in a topsy-turvy universe where all the crew look the same but are almost opposite in personality, including the famous be-goateed "Evil Spock."

With a few notable exceptions, last week's results seemed a bit like that, with the usual teams often taking unfamiliar positions in the standings. This week the goatees have been shaved: although the game was challenging (only two scores above 50k, four of the top ten places going to Borg teams), in terms of relative rankings the universe was a bit less topsy-turvy. Here are Tuesday's results:

Score Team
53,195 BWW-Crystal City, Arlington VA
49,790 The Fellowship, BWW-Kent OH
48,107 The Old Barn, Portland OR
47,597 Tailgate Sports Cafe, Minneapolis MN
46,055 The Ragged Rascals, Albuquerque NM
43,554 Danny K's, Orange CA
43,480 K-zoo Krew, BWW-Kalamazoo MI
42,555 BWW-Oklahoma City OK
42,223 Time Out West, Hanover Park IL
41,850 BWW-Tallahassee FL
41,302 Stained Glass Pub, Elkridge MD
41,197 Big Guys, Winnipeg MB
39,998 Tilted Kilt, Scottsdale AZ
39,890 Broadway Bar and Grill, Nepean ON
39,683 Scooter's, Las Vegas NV
39,269 Houlihan's-Westbury NY
38,852 Teaser's, Chicago IL
38,297 Bilmar Station, Tampa FL
37,704 Mad River, New York NY
37,422 West Park Station, Cleveland OH
36,714 BWW-Blacksburg, VA
36,242 Moose McGuires, Ottawa ON
34,194 Cedar Cottage, Vancouver BC
33,573 Humperdinck's, Dallas TX
31,705 Wallaby's, Lenexa KS
31,065 K.C.'s Time Out Lounge, Evansville IN
13,379 Meriden AOH, Meriden CT
12,047 Stadium Cafe, Addison TX
0 Adam’s Mill, Manchester CT

Goateed or not, the former Grand Slammers at BWW-Crystal City continued to dominate the standings, while other teams bounced back from abysmal performances last week. Unfortunately, Adam's Mill was unable to play due to a weather-related closing. On the other hand, given the difficulty of the games so far and the fact that most of the teams have struggled, if there was ever a year that a team could bounce back from a disastrous game and a zeroed-out score, this year could be it. As a case in point, look at the cumulative standings so far:

Score Team
112452 BWW-Crystal City, Arlington VA
84451 The Ragged Rascals, Albuquerque NM
82078 Tailgate Sports Cafe, Minneapolis MN
78582 West Park Station, Cleveland OH
77813 Tilted Kilt, Scottsdale AZ
76585 K-zoo Krew, BWW-Kalamazoo MI
75148 Scooter's, Las Vegas NV
74243 The Old Barn, Portland OR
74013 Broadway Bar and Grill, Nepean ON
71439 Big Guys, Winnipeg MB
70977 Teaser's, Chicago IL
70834 Houlihan's-Westbury NY
70163 BWW-Tallahassee FL
69210 Stained Glass Pub, Elkridge MD
68862 Mad River, New York NY
68684 The Fellowship, BWW-Kent OH
68554 Moose McGuires, Ottawa ON
67135 Time Out West, Hanover Park IL
59291 Danny K's, Orange CA
56521 BWW-Oklahoma City OK
54255 BWW-Blacksburg, VA
54200 Cedar Cottage, Vancouver BC
53038 Humperdinck's, Dallas TX
52686 Bilmar Station, Tampa FL
45723 K.C.'s Time Out Lounge, Evansville IN
42459 Wallaby's, Lenexa KS
31748 Meriden AOH, Meriden CT
30629 Stadium Cafe, Addison TX
12855 Adam’s Mill, Manchester CT

Despite the fact that The Fellowship lemminged to the wrong answer last week, it has somehow clawed its way (barely) into the top 16 even though it didn't crack 50k this week and is counting last week's gruesome score. If another topsy-turvy game comes up, who knows what will happen?

Of course the score to keep your eye on is the cumulative score after dropping a low score, which will be the one that determines who makes it into the elimination round. In what may be a McCarthy Cup Tournament record, only four teams that played last night failed to improve on last week's score, which indicates that Week 1 will probably be the dropped score for most of the teams. With only two weeks to go in the preliminary round, this means that unless you are in Crystal City, VA, there is little room for error from here on out:

Score Team
59257 BWW-Crystal City, Arlington VA
49790 The Fellowship, BWW-Kent OH
48107 The Old Barn, Portland OR
47597 Tailgate Sports Cafe, Minneapolis MN
46055 The Ragged Rascals, Albuquerque NM
43554 Danny K's, Orange CA
43480 K-zoo Krew, BWW-Kalamazoo MI
42555 BWW-Oklahoma City OK
42223 Time Out West, Hanover Park IL
41850 BWW-Tallahassee FL
41302 Stained Glass Pub, Elkridge MD
41197 Big Guys, Winnipeg MB
41160 West Park Station, Cleveland OH
39998 Tilted Kilt, Scottsdale AZ
39890 Broadway Bar and Grill, Nepean ON
39683 Scooter's, Las Vegas NV
39269 Houlihan's-Westbury NY
38852 Teaser's, Chicago IL
38297 Bilmar Station, Tampa FL
37704 Mad River, New York NY
36714 BWW-Blacksburg, VA
36242 Moose McGuires, Ottawa ON
34194 Cedar Cottage, Vancouver BC
33573 Humperdinck's, Dallas TX
31705 Wallaby's, Lenexa KS
31065 K.C.'s Time Out Lounge, Evansville IN
18582 Stadium Cafe, Addison TX
18369 Meriden AOH, Meriden CT
12855 Adam’s Mill, Manchester CT

The bubble is still pretty big, and there is plenty of opportunity for movement in the coming weeks. Good skill to all on Tuesday, and Live Long and Prosper.

_________________
Anon
"He may seem like Mr. Rogers but a dark spirit lies beneath."

Thanks, appreciate the confidence, It will be up to my teammies as I play next tuesday weather permitting LOL, then its off to hopefully sunny Florida for 9 days of R&R

Looks like we may get trivia in tonight, looks like the nor'easter (the 3rd one in 4 weeks) will hit tomorrow, but unfortunately my flight to Florida got cancelled, so a day delay for vacay

Mesdames et Monsieurs, je mais presente RICHTE, who literally can't buy a (spring?) break. At least he didn't spend the evening at a casino. Fond as I am of dispensing unsolicited advice, even I knew that a gambling den was hardly a place he would choose to visit, in these troubled times.

We know that RICHTE avoided the casino owing to his fine 13K and 12th place finish on the Final Top 20 in Brainbuster.

Well played, Sir. I, on the other hand, did go to the casino, and gambled away the family farm, taking Lackluster ahead of Braggadaccio as the term coined by Edmund Spenser in Final Showdown. Of course the Tailgate received no elimination of Lackluster, a term which, on closer inspection, seems to have been planted in the drop-down box for the special purpose of placing the Tailgate on the bubble in this tournament.

Some possibilities for future final questions in Showdown:
What is the penultimate word in the novel Middlemarch?
What is the 64th largest moon of Jupiter?
How many people were killed at the Battle of Hastings?
Oh, and...How many months will it take for Buzztime to go out of business?

Difficult to criticize XTRAIN for a lack of attitude.

I thought I could draw up the penultimate word in Middlemarch, but the second of my duplicate copies went to a recovering alcoholic, who recently graduated with an English degree, special emphasis on feminist literature. One can specialize in this regard at St Catherine's (one of a consortium of colleges in St Paul, which includes St Thomas, Hamline, Macalester, and Augsburg in Minneapolis. Enroll in one of these schools, you can attend classes in any of the others).

I went above and beyond, annotating the book with a map of Middlemarch and its environs, where all the neighbors were placed in relation to each other, translating the French phrases, etc, and now that I think about it...

Not having seen nor heard from her, I might request through our mutual friend LORBOR that, if she doesn't regard Dorothea Brooke as a feminist study, she might do me the courtesy of returning the damn thing.

There, XTRAIN. Back at 'cha.

I only thought of the Middlemarch question because Dr. Joseph Duffy, who taught The English Novel at Notre Dame when I was there, stressed that he had been asked these questions as part of his doctoral orals. "What is the last word in Middlemarch?" A. Tombs. "What is the penultimate word in Middlemarch?" A. Unvisited. Of course, those were the days when you actually had to know things. Your friend probably had to answer "How did Middlemarch make you feel?"

Although The Borg famously insist that “resistance is futile,” The Federation learns that it can, in fact, resist them. This resistance comes at a cost, though. Just ask Picard/Locutus or the fleet of Federation Starships at Wolf 359 in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “The Best of Both Worlds, Part II.”

Similarly, Buzztime has proved that The Borg can be resisted effectively in Showdown, too—mostly through shrewd writing in the final six questions. Tuesday’s game was a perfect example of this: not a single Borg team cracked the top 20, probably (I suspect) because of a final question that was extremely difficult to look up on a computer quickly enough to get a good score. But this resistance came at a cost as well, primarily in the form of lower scores overall. In this regard, it proved to be an extremely challenging game: only one team got more than 50k, and only four cracked 40k.

Beyond banishing The Borg to the Delta Quadrant of the standings, the effect of all this was to make the McCarthy Cup even more competitive than usual. With only one week to go in the preliminary round, only one team—BWW-Crystal City, VA—has clinched a spot in the finals. Even more extraordinarily, not a single team has been mathematically eliminated from contention—not even Adam’s Mill, which had to take a zero for last week’s game. Thus, there is more than usual riding on the last week of prelims.

This week’s results were as follows:

51086 The Fellowship, BWW-Kent OH
47137 Houlihan's-Westbury NY
46844 BWW-Crystal City, Arlington VA
46162 The Old Barn, Portland OR
39564 Big Guys, Winnipeg MB
38731 Time Out West, Hanover Park IL
38695 Danny K's, Orange CA
36614 The Ragged Rascals, Albuquerque NM
35771 Scooter's, Las Vegas NV
35558 K-zoo Krew, BWW-Kalamazoo MI
34255 West Park Station, Cleveland OH
33336 Humperdinck's, Dallas TX
30933 BWW-Oklahoma City OK
29781 Cedar Cottage, Vancouver BC
28321 Tilted Kilt, Scottsdale AZ
28129 BWW-Blacksburg, VA
27417 Meriden AOH, Meriden CT
26640 Adam’s Mill, Manchester CT
22763 Wallaby's, Lenexa KS
21517 Bilmar Station, Tampa FL
20649 Tailgate Sports Cafe, Minneapolis MN
17810 Mad River, New York NY
17495 Broadway Bar and Grill, Nepean ON
17227 Teaser's, Chicago IL
16240 K.C.'s Time Out Lounge, Evansville IN
14361 BWW-Tallahassee FL
13882 Stadium Cafe, Addison TX
13610 Moose McGuires, Ottawa ON
832 Stained Glass Pub, Elkridge MD

Adding these to the previous scores, the cumulative-point standings look like this:

159296 BWW-Crystal City, Arlington VA
121065 The Ragged Rascals, Albuquerque NM
120405 The Old Barn, Portland OR
119770 The Fellowship, BWW-Kent OH
117971 Houlihan's-Westbury NY
112837 West Park Station, Cleveland OH
112143 K-zoo Krew, BWW-Kalamazoo MI
111003 Big Guys, Winnipeg MB
110919 Scooter's, Las Vegas NV
106134 Tilted Kilt, Scottsdale AZ
105866 Time Out West, Hanover Park IL
102727 Tailgate Sports Cafe, Minneapolis MN
97986 Danny K's, Orange CA
91508 Broadway Bar and Grill, Nepean ON
88204 Teaser's, Chicago IL
87454 BWW-Oklahoma City OK
86672 Mad River, New York NY
86374 Humperdinck's, Dallas TX
84524 BWW-Tallahassee FL
83981 Cedar Cottage, Vancouver BC
82384 BWW-Blacksburg, VA
82164 Moose McGuires, Ottawa ON
74203 Bilmar Station, Tampa FL
70042 Stained Glass Pub, Elkridge MD
65222 Wallaby's, Lenexa KS
61963 K.C.'s Time Out Lounge, Evansville IN
59165 Meriden AOH, Meriden CT
44511 Stadium Cafe, Addison TX
39495 Adam’s Mill, Manchester CT

For most weeks, the cumulative point standings don’t mean much because everyone gets to drop a low score. However, because there is only one week left these numbers represent the lowest possible score any team can have. This can be useful in calculating bubble positions going into the last week.

The most important standings, of course, are the ones that come after dropping a low score. Here is where everyone stands in that regard going into the final week of open play:

112452 BWW-Crystal City, Arlington VA
100876 The Fellowship, BWW-Kent OH
94269 The Old Barn, Portland OR
86406 Houlihan's-Westbury NY
84451 The Ragged Rascals, Albuquerque NM
82249 Danny K's, Orange CA
82078 Tailgate Sports Cafe, Minneapolis MN
80954 Time Out West, Hanover Park IL
80761 Big Guys, Winnipeg MB
79038 K-zoo Krew, BWW-Kalamazoo MI
78582 West Park Station, Cleveland OH
77813 Tilted Kilt, Scottsdale AZ
75454 Scooter's, Las Vegas NV
74013 Broadway Bar and Grill, Nepean ON
73488 BWW-Oklahoma City OK
70977 Teaser's, Chicago IL
70163 BWW-Tallahassee FL
69210 Stained Glass Pub, Elkridge MD
68862 Mad River, New York NY
68554 Moose McGuires, Ottawa ON
66909 Humperdinck's, Dallas TX
64843 BWW-Blacksburg, VA
63975 Cedar Cottage, Vancouver BC
59814 Bilmar Station, Tampa FL
54468 Wallaby's, Lenexa KS
47305 K.C.'s Time Out Lounge, Evansville IN
45786 Meriden AOH, Meriden CT
39495 Adam’s Mill, Manchester CT
32464 Stadium Cafe, Addison TX

If you add 63,750 (a perfect score) to these numbers, it represents the maximum possible score for every team. Using the lowest possible scores for comparison, this is how we know that BWW-Crystal City has clinched a spot in the finals. In fact, even if they did not play on Tuesday and every other team got a perfect score, the Slammers could do no worse than the #3 seed in the elimination round. Congrats to them on smoking the preliminaries.

For the rest of us, however, things are very much up in the air. The “bubble” is extraordinarily large this year. Teaser’s sits squarely on it right now, but there are fully 16 teams—more than half the field—within 10,000 points of them in either direction. Given the wide variation in scores the last few weeks, this means that there is great potential for both upward and downward movement in the final week.

For the vast majority of teams, then, the chances of advancing after this week are anything but futile. Good skill to all, and live long and prosper.

_________________
Anon
"He may seem like Mr. Rogers but a dark spirit lies beneath."

Do you suppose I could get my doctorate by answering "sleepy"?

Somewhere in Buzztime's archive is a question which SPOTES has seen, inquiring after the identity of Dorothea Brooke. The tagline identifies Middlemarch as the greatest of Victorian novels. I gasped in astonishment that anyone at Buzztime would know as much - or more accurately, exercise that level of critical judgment. At the end of the quiz, I again gasped in astonishment. The 86th Street Pub had once again run a Countdown quiz for a perfect 15 site score. By tooth and claw I had earned my usual 11.4.

Dorothea Brooke was the second question in that Countdown quiz. The first question had to do with five TV actors I'd never heard of, who had appeared in a single season fiasco I'd also never heard of.

I worry about you, SPOTES. Is anyone slipping healthful meals under the door of whatever monastic cell you're occupying?

Midway through The Wrath Of Khan, it looks like everything has gone topsy-turvy: Kirk and his party are trapped inside an asteroid—seemingly forever—and Khan is on the loose with the Genesis device, leaving Kirk to scream “KHAAAAAAAAAAN!” in impotent rage. It’s all a ruse, of course, set up by Kirk and Spock using Regulation 46A to trick Khan into thinking he had triumphed. In the end, despite some significant casualties, no one is surprised that Kirk and the Enterprise crew win the day.

In some ways, this is how the preliminary round of the McCarthy Cup played out. It seemed pretty topsy-turvy throughout, with disruptive games in week 1 and week 3 making it look like a changing of the guard might be possible. In the end, though—and despite some significant casualties—the final field revealed after week 4 held few surprises.

OK, it’s a really strained metaphor. But I’m tired and couldn’t think of anything better. If you don’t like it, tough. Feel free to scream “ANOOOOOOOOOON!” in impotent rage.

Here are last night’s results:

55366 Stained Glass Pub, Elkridge MD
53637 BWW-Crystal City, Arlington VA
52743 Houlihan's-Westbury NY
51276 BWW-Blacksburg, VA
51209 The Fellowship, BWW-Kent OH
50906 Danny K's, Orange CA
50262 The Old Barn, Portland OR
48209 The Ragged Rascals, Albuquerque NM
47972 Mad River, New York NY
47865 Tailgate Sports Cafe, Minneapolis MN
47794 Tilted Kilt, Scottsdale AZ
46297 Teaser's, Chicago IL
46076 West Park Station, Cleveland OH
45879 Moose McGuires, Ottawa ON
45093 Big Guys, Winnipeg MB
43747 BWW-Oklahoma City OK
37291 Time Out West, Hanover Park IL
33766 Humperdinck's, Dallas TX
32869 Stadium Cafe, Addison TX
32060 Bilmar Station, Tampa FL
32037 Broadway Bar and Grill, Nepean ON
30994 Scooter's, Las Vegas NV
30816 Cedar Cottage, Vancouver BC
29334 BWW-Tallahassee FL
27594 Wallaby's, Lenexa KS
27549 Meriden AOH, Meriden CT
25455 K.C.'s Time Out Lounge, Evansville IN
21276 K-zoo Krew, BWW-Kalamazoo MI
19979 Adam’s Mill, Manchester CT

Congrats to the folks at Stained Glass Pub on the win for the evening. After missing last week’s game their backs were against the wall, and they responded splendidly, as we will see.

Adding last night’s scores to the ones before, here are the cumulative point totals for each team:

212933 BWW-Crystal City, Arlington VA
170979 The Fellowship, BWW-Kent OH
170714 Houlihan's-Westbury NY
170667 The Old Barn, Portland OR
169274 The Ragged Rascals, Albuquerque NM
158913 West Park Station, Cleveland OH
156096 Big Guys, Winnipeg MB
153928 Tilted Kilt, Scottsdale AZ
150592 Tailgate Sports Cafe, Minneapolis MN
148892 Danny K's, Orange CA
143157 Time Out West, Hanover Park IL
141913 Scooter's, Las Vegas NV
134644 Mad River, New York NY
134501 Teaser's, Chicago IL
133660 BWW-Blacksburg, VA
133419 K-zoo Krew, BWW-Kalamazoo MI
131201 BWW-Oklahoma City OK
128043 Moose McGuires, Ottawa ON
125408 Stained Glass Pub, Elkridge MD
123545 Broadway Bar and Grill, Nepean ON
120140 Humperdinck's, Dallas TX
114797 Cedar Cottage, Vancouver BC
113858 BWW-Tallahassee FL
106263 Bilmar Station, Tampa FL
92816 Wallaby's, Lenexa KS
87418 K.C.'s Time Out Lounge, Evansville IN
86714 Meriden AOH, Meriden CT
77380 Stadium Cafe, Addison TX
59474 Adam’s Mill, Manchester CT

Clearly, the former Grand Slammers at BWW-Crystal City went ahead in week 1 and never looked back. There are more points separating them from the #2 team than there are separating the #2 team from the #11 team. Fortunately for the rest of the field, the points get thrown out after this.

Of course, the only number that matters is the cumulative total after low scores are dropped. Oddly, though, despite all the topsy-turviness of previous weeks, dropping low scores ousted only two teams from the Sweet 16. Here are the final preliminary round standings (teams that are advancing in bold):

166089 BWW-Crystal City, Arlington VA
152085 The Fellowship, BWW-Kent OH
144531 The Old Barn, Portland OR
139149 Houlihan's-Westbury NY
133155 Danny K's, Orange CA
132660 The Ragged Rascals, Albuquerque NM
129943 Tailgate Sports Cafe, Minneapolis MN
125854 Big Guys, Winnipeg MB
125607 Tilted Kilt, Scottsdale AZ
124658 West Park Station, Cleveland OH
124576 Stained Glass Pub, Elkridge MD
118245 Time Out West, Hanover Park IL
117274 Teaser's, Chicago IL
117235 BWW-Oklahoma City OK
116834 Mad River, New York NY
116119 BWW-Blacksburg, VA
114433 Moose McGuires, Ottawa ON
112143 K-zoo Krew, BWW-Kalamazoo MI
110919 Scooter's, Las Vegas NV
106050 Broadway Bar and Grill, Nepean ON
100675 Humperdinck's, Dallas TX
99497 BWW-Tallahassee FL
94791 Cedar Cottage, Vancouver BC
91874 Bilmar Station, Tampa FL
82062 Wallaby's, Lenexa KS
73335 Meriden AOH, Meriden CT
72760 K.C.'s Time Out Lounge, Evansville IN
65333 Stadium Cafe, Addison TX
59474 Adam’s Mill, Manchester CT

Before moving on, I’d like to take a moment to thank all of the teams that won’t be advancing. If you are among those teams, you are in good company, including a couple of former McCarthy Cup champions. We appreciate the competition you provided in a very tough field, and we hope you will sign up for the Sandbag Tournament that will begin in the fall.

Congrats to all of the teams making the Sweet 16—especially Stained Glass Pub and BWW-Oklahoma, which elbowed their way into the field in the final week. If Loyola can make the Final Four of the NCAA tournament, then I see no reason why these teams can’t be the Cinderella Stories of this tournament.

But they are not alone. Despite the fact that the final field represents most of the usual suspects, there are plenty of opportunities for upsets from here on out. Here are the pairings for the first elimination game:

1 BWW-Crystal City, Arlington VA
16 BWW-Blacksburg, VA

8 Big Guys, Winnipeg MB
9 Tilted Kilt, Scottsdale AZ

5 Danny K's, Orange CA
12 Time Out West, Hanover Park IL

4 Houlihan's-Westbury NY
13 Teaser's, Chicago IL

3 The Old Barn, Portland OR
14 BWW-Oklahoma City OK

6 The Ragged Rascals, Albuquerque NM
11 Stained Glass Pub, Elkridge MD

7 Tailgate Sports Cafe, Minneapolis MN
10 West Park Station, Cleveland OH

2 The Fellowship, BWW-Kent OH
15 Mad River, New York NY

Intriguing matchups abound here. For example, the Fellowship/Mad River tilt is a rematch of the 2014 McCarthy Semifinals and the 2014 Sandbag Finals. The Ragged Rascals/Stained Glass Pub and Tailgate/West Park Station pairings pit top-ten-ranked teams (according to Don Denton’s site) against each other in matches more fitted for the semifinals or finals.

The truth is, though, that all of the matchups are intriguing because once you get to this level, any team is more than capable of knocking off any other team on any given Tuesday. It only takes another week like week 1 of this tournament to break everybody’s brackets.

Congrats again to the Sweet 16 teams. Good skill this week; and live long and prosper.

_________________
Anon
"He may seem like Mr. Rogers but a dark spirit lies beneath."

To the last, I grapple with thee!

_________________
Merkin

That's some wonderful statistical spadework, ANON.

As MERKIN has suggested, it'll take disciplined team play, as exemplified by Loyola-Chicago in the NCAA Tournament, to defeat the whales who attend our no less competitive Showdown affairs.

I'm a Big Ten guy, but I can't be the only one who roots for GYPSY's team.

The law school she brags up but seldom identifies is Chicago-Loyola. In the final four of the NCAA Tournament.

Direct your best wishes to MERKIN. GYPSY's too busy to reply to all her correspondence.

Chicago is Loyola Ramblers crazed! Especially since the last two times they did well in the tourney (1963 & 1985), something else good happened.

In general, I root for all Big Ten teams except That Team Up North.

Now, if only the finest school in the league will consider rejoining.....

_________________
Merkin

You task me. You task me, and I shall have Teasers. I'll chase you round the Moons of Nibia and round the Antares Maelstrom and round Perdition's flames before I give up!

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Anon
"He may seem like Mr. Rogers but a dark spirit lies beneath."

I object, GONE D! I reply to all of my correspondence! It just took me a minute to realize that I was addressed somewhere in these threads.

Yes, I'm at Loyola Law School Chicago and it is absolutely INSANE. Did you catch the interview with Sister Jean in which she said that she always prays for both teams, but she prays a little harder for Loyola?